The tremendous growth of the Internet places enormous demands on network infrastructures. To cope with these demands, many modern routers employ a distributed architecture, where the performance of routing functions are distributed among the router's main processing components and the intelligent linecards installed within the router. Generally, a router with a distributed architecture is more efficient and is capable of providing more services than a router with a centralized architecture. Currently, when a network operator needs to introduce a new service or to upgrade an existing service, a router with a distributed architecture requires that all of the linecards in the router be upgraded. This causes unnecessary delay and effort every time a service introduction or a service upgrade is performed.